The present invention relates to drainage systems, and more particularly to drainage receptacles.
In the past, drainage systems have been proposed to catheterize patients. Such systems comprise a catheter having a drainage lumen and a drainage eye adjacent a distal end of the catheter. The upstream end of a drainage tube having a lumen is connected to a proximal end of the catheter, and a downstream end of the drainage tube is connected to a drainage receptacle having a chamber. In use, the distal end of the catheter is passed through the urethra of a patient until the drainage eye is located in the patient's bladder. Urine then drains through the drainage eye, the lumen of the catheter, and the lumen of the drainage tube to the chamber for collection therein.
The drainage receptacle commonly comprises a collection bag having flexible walls, and if the walls are inadvertently squeezed during catheterization the collected urine may reflux into the drainage tube and possibly the catheter. It is necessary to prevent such reflux of urine, since the refluxing urine increases the possibility of retrograde movement of bacteria toward the bladder with possible deleterious results to the patient. Valves have been proposed in the past to prevent the reflux of urine from the collection bag into the drainage tube, but such valves have either not operated properly or have been unnecessarily complex with multiple parts.